PORT ANGELES — Jeffery Michael Dunn has pleaded not guilty to a hate crime and four assault charges for allegedly throwing eggs June 13 at Black Lives Matter protesters while yelling racial and homophobic slurs.
Port Angeles City Council member Navarra Carr was among the women who were pelted by the 24-year-old Clallam Bay resident, according to court documents.
Dunn was charged with fourth-degree assault against four women.
The hate crime offense, formerly known as malicious harassment, includes a special allegation of lack of contrition that says Dunn “demonstrated or displayed an egregious lack of remorse.”
A hate crime is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The alleged hate crime is against a 35-year-old Black woman who was at the early evening rally at the Clallam County courthouse.
“[Dunn] committed the offense because of the victim’s race, color and/or ancestry,” according to the charge, citing state law.
Dunn, who has been released from jail on $2,500 bail, entered the not-guilty plea Friday in Clallam County Superior Court. A status hearing is Oct. 15 and a three-day trial scheduled for Nov. 2.
The protest, which police said was peaceful, was organized in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died during his May 25 arrest by police in Minneapolis, Minn.
Port Angeles Police Officer Swift Sanchez said the focus of the protest was Black Lives Matter and included signs that said “Justice for George Floyd,” “I Can’t Breath[e]” and “Defund the Police.”
According to a probable cause statement, Dunn admitted to leaving the Safeway across the street from the courthouse in his pickup before driving by the demonstration three times, throwing eggs he had recently purchased.
He said he yelled slurs while throwing the eggs, repeatedly using both the “N” word and an offensive term for gays, the statement said.
He said he saw Blacks at the protest.
“Dunn denied targeting any particular group or person at the protest,” according to the statement.
An interview with the Black woman was not included in the probable cause statement.
The other four women, none of whom are Black, were interviewed, including Carr.
Carr, 28, told police she saw Dunn’s gray truck leave the Safeway and that eggs were thrown at them while the man yelled at them.
Carr said Tuesday she did not realize an egg struck her on the foot until someone told her.
“You just don’t sort of expect someone to throw eggs at you,” she said.
“We’ve all seen protests we don’t agree with, but it really takes a lot of anger and hatred, I think, to actually throw things at people and try to cause them harm.”
A 35-year-old woman brought a sign with her with a rainbow on it in recognition of Pride Month, she told Port Angeles Police Officer Kyle Cooper.
She said the man yelled homophobic slurs at her and threw eggs at her and the people around her, and eggs hit both her and her sister.
A 20-year-old woman said she saw the man throw “a volley of eggs” that splattered around her feet when he drove by the crowd.
When he passed by again, she was struck on the right side of her neck, leaving “some redness on the lower part of her neck,” according to the probable cause statement.
“She stated that she was standing next to an African American family and believed that the suspect was intentionally throwing the eggs at them,” Cooper said in the statement.
And a 59-year-old Native American woman told Cooper that an egg hit her in the leg.
After the incident, Dunn changed his Facebook profile photo to one of him taken by a witness at the protest that showed him throwing eggs from his vehicle, according to the probable cause statement.
He added the nickname, “That egger guy.”
Carr said she doesn’t like feeling like a target in her own community.
“I really just encourage him to do some learning about other groups in the community, about people of color, about gay people, about transgender people, about queer folks, the different kinds of people who live in our community and are represented here and call this place our home, and who are his neighbors.”
A harassment no-contact order prevents Dunn from interacting in any way with the five women until July 2025.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
